This application relates to and claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. 61/350,375, filed Jun. 1, 2010, incorporated here by reference in its entirety.
This specification relates to data processing.
The Internet provides access to a wide variety of resources. For example, video and/or audio files, as well as web pages for particular subjects or particular news articles are accessible over the Internet. Access to these resources presents opportunities for advertisements (or other sponsored content items) to be provided with the resources. For example, a web page can include “slots” (i.e., pre-defined portions of the web page) in which advertisements (or other content items) can be presented. These slots can be defined in the web page or defined for presentation with a web page, for example, in a pop-up window.
Advertisement slots can be allocated to advertisers through an auction. For example, advertisers can provide bids specifying amounts that the advertisers are respectively willing to pay for presentation of their advertisements. In turn, an auction can be performed and the advertisement slots can be allocated to advertisers according to their bids. When one advertisement slot is being allocated in the auction, the advertisement slot can be allocated to the advertiser that provided the highest bid. When multiple advertisement slots are allocated in a single auction, the advertisement slots can be allocated to set of bidders that provided the highest bids.
Content items that are presented in slots of a resource can be selected for presentation by a content distribution system. The content distribution system receives content requests for content items (e.g., advertisements, video, audio or other content items) to be provided with a resource and selects a content item provider to provide a content item in response to the request. The content item request can be a request for advertisements to be provided with search results. For example, when a search query is submitted by a user, the content item request is generated and transmitted to a content distribution system that selects advertisements for presentation with the search results. The advertisement management system selects advertisements, for example, based on characteristics of the search query, such as keywords that are matched by the search query, as well as bids that are associated with (e.g., indexed according to and/or stored with a reference to) the keywords by the advertisers.
Advertisement management accounts can enable advertisers to specify keywords and corresponding bids that are used to control allocation of their advertisements. The advertiser can also track the performance of advertisements that are provided using the keywords and corresponding bids. For example, an advertiser can access the advertisement management account and view performance measures corresponding to the advertiser's advertisements that were distributed using each keyword. In turn, the advertiser can adjust settings that control the allocation of advertisements and compare the performance measures for the advertisements that are allocated using the new settings.